Category Archives: Tips, Tricks & Tutorials

Learning how to improve your productivity with online tools

New Ways to Search PubMed Central (PMC) 

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To make the most of the full text that’s available in PubMed Central (PMC), its search was recently updated!

For those new to this resource, PMC is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature hosted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). While PMC is a part of PubMed, and your searches in PubMed will undoubtedly show you some PMC results, not everything in PubMed will have full text immediately available to you. Starting your search directly in the PMC search interface means you’ll only get full-text PMC results.

PMC’s new search lets you harness that full text in new ways. To learn about everything new or updated, or how to use PMC, explore the PMC User Guide.

The new features I’m most excited about are:

  1. The ability to use proximity searching (also known as adjacency searching) within 14 different fields of a record. An example of this is “cancer pain”[ti:~1]. The double quotation marks and the information within the square brackets will pull in any record where cancer and pain are adjacent to each other by one or less terms in its title. It will bring in the phrases “cancer pain” as well as “pain of cancer.”
  2. Updated truncation searching that allows for unlimited variations of a term, instead of only the first 600 variations. An example of this is intervention*[tiab]. The asterisk and the information within the square brackets will pull in any record where a term that starts with intervention appears in its title or abstract. It will bring in the terms intervention, interventions, and interventional.
  3. The search field tag of [body] to search the full text of a record, meaning it searches all words and numbers in the body of an article, but not the abstract or references. An example of this is coping skill*[body]. The asterisk and the information within the square brackets will pull in any record where a phrase that starts with “coping skill” appears in its body. It will bring in the phrases “coping skill” as well as “coping skills.”

Below is an example of a search that showcases the new features I listed above, each connected with the Boolean AND. You can copy and paste this into the PMC search bar or just click on the hyperlink to be taken to a list of results.

“cancer pain”[ti:~1] AND intervention*[tiab] AND coping skill*[body]

While I’ve been enjoying the new PMC search, two things to note:

  1. A missing search feature requires your feedback.
  2. The federal government shutdown means you can’t give feedback.

There’s been some library listserv discussion about what was lost when PMC made the search switch, such as not being able to combine search strings or select a filter for language.

PMC Beta Search was introduced in April 2025 to give users a preview of the new search that went live in September 2025. Digging into recent PMC search announcements, there was subtle mention that some features would no longer be available once PMC Beta Search became the default. An August 2025 announcement built on an earlier April 2025 announcement and included the line “Some features of the current PMC search will not be included in this initial release.”

A notice on the PMC User Guide, included as a screenshot below, includes the line “the new PMC search represents a minimum-viable-product (MVP) approach.” The surrounding text implies a decision was made to deliver this new search experience with a focus on speed and not perfection, and that more search features could be coming based on user feedback.

Screenshot of the notice from the PMC User Guide. Its title is "September 2025 - PMC Search Functionality and User Experience Updated." The body of the notice is "In order to provide users with the benefits of a new search on a reasonable timeline, the new PMC search represents a minimum-viable-product (MVP) approach. NLM is committed to continued PubMed Central development, including iteratively adding functions and improving the system based on user needs and feedback to ensure that PMC remains a trusted and accessible source of biomedical literature today and in the future. For more information about this update, please see NCBI Insights: New PMC Search."

Taken as a whole, you can see that anything you think is missing from PMC search needs your input in order to be known and prioritized. The two announcements and notice all recommend reaching out to the NLM Help Desk with feedback.

However, October 1 was the first day of the ongoing federal government shutdown. The NLM Help Desk and PMC are government-run, and consequently, no suggestions to improve PMC search can be received or implemented at this time.

But we MSK librarians are here! If at any time you have questions about PMC or searching in general, please reach out.

Complying with the NIH Public Access Policy

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The new NIH Public Access Policy has been in effect for a couple of months, requiring that NIH-funded research be made available in PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication.

How can you comply?

Our library guide walks you through some of the key steps you need to do as an author, from strategically selecting where to publish, publisher-specific policies, and when and how to deposit the author-accepted manuscript. In addition, a recent webinar from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Savitt Medical Library highlighted some of the details of this policy change:

  • The new policy applies to “manuscripts accepted for publication in a journal, on or after July 1, 2025.” Compliance will be tracked through My Bibliography based on the earliest publication date in PubMed.

  • If the published work is based on a grant that ended before July 1, 2025, it is not subject to the updated policy.

  • Neither publishing open access nor posting your manuscript to a preprint server counts as compliance.

The webinar and our guide offer useful advice that may help you select a journal to target for publication:

  • The PMC journal list includes key information from journals that currently or previously agreed to deposit the final published version of NIH-funded articles directly to PMC. You can search for journals based on their agreement status and embargo period.

  • The agreement status remains the most up-to-date piece of information listed. If a journal is listed as “no longer participating,” no further articles are being deposited into PMC, regardless of previous agreements.

    Filters available when searching the PubMed Central journal list, at right.

    • After searching the PMC journal list, visiting our frequently updated publisher policy list, or viewing the website of the journal in question, reaching out to the journal to confirm the policy in writing remains a best practice.

    Still have questions? Reach out to the Library and we will do our best to advise you.

    What are Search Hedges?

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    A “search hedge” is a library term that describes one of two things:

    • Filter: A pre-set feature found in some literature databases, that enables the user to be guided through a process to locate articles on a specific type of question.
    • Hedge: A published (and sometimes validated) comprehensive search strategy for a database on a specific concept or topic, that can be added to a search, customized, or used as a complete ready-made search.

    Search Filters

    Search filters are found within a database and work by assisting the user with locating articles for a specific type of question by filling out a form/selecting a pre-set filter.

    PubMed Clinical Queries

    PubMed Clinical Queries are a built-in search hedge found in PubMed, that assists users in locating clinical studies to answer clinical questions. Users simply enter their search terms and answer several questions (such as whether the question is related to diagnosis, therapy, prognosis, or etiology), and from there PubMed adds a pre-set hedge that is designed specifically for the answers provided.

    The search hedge itself is “hidden” from the search strategy seen by the user, however the complete hedge can be viewed in the Clinical Queries filter details.

    Embase Search tools

    When using Embase (on the Elsevier platform) there are several built-in search tools available to help quickly filter results when searching on specific topics, including: PICO, PV Wizard, and Medical Device.

    PICO

    The PICO search tool assists in doing evidence-based practice by providing separate sections to enter each component of the PICO framework (population, intervention, comparison, outcome) as well as study design, to quickly identify clinical studies to answer the clinical question being addressed.

    PV Wizard

    The PV Wizard (PV stands for pharmacovigilance) allows the user to locate articles that address drug monitoring and adverse events using specific drug names (including trade, generic, and alternate names), with buttons to limit to things like adverse reactions, drug interactions, drug combinations, as well as special situations (pregnancy, breastfeeding, pediatric, geriatric, organ failure, etc.).

    Medical Device

    The Medical Device search allows users to quickly locate clinical and pre-clinical studies on general and medical devices, including manufacturers information and adverse events. This search hedge was developed and validated by industry representatives to ensure that it aligns with best practices for medical device monitoring.

    Embase Quick Limits

    Embase has several “quick limits” which are essentially search filters that can be added using a single click. These limits can be added by either checking off a box or by adding a specific field code to your search strategy.

    • Humans: Either the Humans quick limit button or the field code [humans]/lim
    • Animals: Either the Animal quick limit button or the field code [animals]/lim
    • EBM: Quick limit button for Cochrane Reviews, Controlled Trials and RCTs

    Search Hedges

    Search hedges are comprehensive search strategies for a specific database on topics or concepts that have been devised by librarians or information professionals. These hedges are published and available for anyone to use, and many are also validated. While hedges can be used on their own, as ready-made searches on various topics, they are most often added on to the user’s search strategy to limit or narrow the results.

    Most search hedges are designed for things like specific populations, study types, diseases or conditions, or outcome measures. Typically a search hedge can simply be copied and pasted into the database, and then using the Boolean operator AND, added to a search already created.

    Embase Study Type Hedges

    The Embase Study Type Hedges are standardized search strategies for common and frequently used concepts that can used along with a search query. These search strategy hedges can be copied and pasted into the search box in Embase and then added to an already designed search using the Boolean operator AND.

    These hedges are to be used to focus on locating specific types of clinical or experimental studies, and each hedge has an option for either sensitivity (comprehensive) and specificity (focused) based results.

    There are several types of hedges available on Embase.com.

    • General Study Types: Therapy, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Etiology, Economics, etc
    • Hedges by Topic: Diabetes, Real-World Data, Cost Effectiveness, DEI
    • Animal Breed Hedges: Species-specific hedges for most animals used in research and agriculture

    Locating Search Hedges

    Since search hedges are published search strategies on specific topics, they can be found in a variety of places online. Some, such as the Study Type Hedges in Embase and the Study Type Filters in PubMed, are available from the database itself. Others can be found on various library websites, published literature, and in special search hedge repositories (though these may not be validated).

    It’s common to find search hedges in systematic review resources, since systematic reviews require comprehensive search strategies, and search hedges can provide just that.

    A validated search hedge is the “gold-standard” and has been independently tested and verified, so if there is a validated hedge available for the topic you are looking for, that is your best option.

    Search Hedge Sources

    Suggested Reading

    What is the difference between a filter and a hedge?. J Eur Assoc Health Info Libr [Internet]. 2016 Apr. 1 [cited 2025 May 6];12(1). Available from: https://ojs.eahil.eu/JEAHIL/article/view/95